Bromley
Environmental games
Environmental games to
teach concepts and issues
Gail Bromley
These cheap and simple-to-organise games help understanding of
concepts and ecological processes and convey important conservation
messages
In November 1996, several education workshops were
held as part of the III Reunion Latinoamericana y del
Caribe de Jardines Botanicos en Caxias, held at Rio
Grande do Sul, Brasil. One of the themes explored
was: ‘How to use games to engage the interest of
children (and their teachers) in environmental or plantfocused education’. This article provides details of
some of the games demonstrated which will, it is
hoped, help many environmental education workers,
irrespective of whether they are based in a school, a
museum, a nature reserve or a botanic garden.
The ‘games’ theme proved extremely popular
amongst the conference participants, not only for those
working in the field of education but also horticulturists, botanic garden managers and supervisors
and even a botanic garden director or two! All of the
games, collected over time from a variety of innovative
and enthusiastic environmental education coordinators
in many institutions, have been tried out with children
and teachers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and
proved to be very effective in ‘getting the message
across’ to those participating. A list of the originators
of the games is given at the end of this article.
Some games introduce scientific concepts that may
be difficult to explain in words; some carry strong
messages about the importance of conservation
practices and the problems associated with pollution;
still others provide a simple way to build up an understanding of ecological processes. One of the particular
joys of these games is that they are very cheap to
operate: most only require scrap paper or card and
pencils, string and thread or at most a selection of
readily-available household items.
ABSTRACT
Several games are described from various
sources which can help in teaching about
photosynthesis, pollination, pollution, plant parts,
Earth history time-scale, biodiversity
conservation, values and communication. The
games require little equipment and are simple to
organise. They have proved very effective with
various age groups ranging from primary to adult.
Procedure
Give each child in the class one of the small cards/
paper with either ‘carbon dioxide’ or ‘water’ written
on it. It is easier if each card has a loop of string or
thread on it, so that the card can be hung around each
child’s neck. The children are each playing the role of
their named chemical. Place all the big green sheets
of paper on the ground separated from each other; these
The photosynthesis game
One of the more simple ‘investigating science’
activities, The photosynthesis game, helps children to
visualise photosynthesis by enacting the process
themselves.
Equipment needed
■ small sheets of paper/card with CO2 or CARBON
DIOXIDE written on (number = half the class)
■ small sheets of paper/card with H2O or WATER
written on (number = half the class)
■ small sheets of paper/card with O2 or OXYGEN
written on (number = half the class)
■ small sheets of paper/card with SUGAR written
on (number = half the class)
■ big green sheets of paper/card/material to represent
chloroplasts (number = half the class)
■ candle in a holder plus a lighter or a torch/other
light source
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Environmental games
represent the chloroplasts where photosynthesis takes
place. Tell the children to wait together in a group
outside the space you are going to use for the game,
which represents the leaf. If necessary a leaf shape
could be outlined in chalk or string on the ground. It is
useful if the space can be darkened (although this is
not vital). Then light the candle; this represents the
Sun coming out (daylight). The children or ‘chemicals’
enter the leaf and each ‘carbon dioxide’ seeks out a
‘water’ to pair with. Each pair then stands on a chloroplast (a green sheet of paper). Facing each other and
hugging, each pair of chemicals (or children) does a
little circular dance on their chloroplast. This is the
‘chemical interaction’ taking place.
Visit each pair of children and swap the ‘carbon
dioxide’ and ‘water’ cards for ‘oxygen’ and ‘sugar’
cards – it does not matter which child within each pair
gets which. The ‘oxygen’ and the ‘sugar’ now separate
and each chemical leaves the chloroplast and the ‘leaf
space’. Then blow out the candle to represent night
falling.
This is a reasonably simple game but it will
naturally depend on the ages/levels of the children as
to whether you use words, symbols or chemical
notation on the cards. The game can be made more
sophisticated if wished, by drawing an outline of a
huge plant with stem and roots, perhaps using string
or thread, and adding such things as ‘gaps’ in the leaf
edges to represent stomata. The children would then
have to enter and leave by the right exit and entrance
– carbon dioxide via the stomata, water via the roots
and sugar into the stem and then in and out of the plant
parts. This requires a bit more prior explanation and a
lot more space but can be great fun.
The pollination game
This game explores another specific plant process and,
through role play, helps the children try to understand
what is needed for plant pollination and how it actually
takes place. This game was initially developed by
SAPS (Science and Plants for Schools), a British-based
plant-science teaching unit, and has been written about
in various places.
Equipment/roles needed
■ 2 sets of 4 shaped and coloured petals made out of
stiff card (about half a metre or more in length
each). Each petal should be tapered at the base so
that a child can hold it up. 2 sets of 4 children each
hold up a petal and each group forms the outermost
circle of each flower.
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■ 4 pairs (or more) of long socks. These are worn on
the hands of the children representing the stamens
(one pair of socks per child and at least two children
per flower). These children should stand inside the
‘petal ring’ and hold up their hands.
■ 40 (or more) ping-pong balls with Velcro strips on
them (to stick to the socks). These represent the
‘pollen grains’. You can use rolled-up sticky tape
but it is not quite so effective. The pollen should
be evenly distributed between the ‘stamens’ (socks)
of each flower.
■ 2 woolly ‘bobble’ hats. These are worn by the two
children who represent the stigmas. Each child
stands in the centre of a flower and holds up his/
her head to receive pollen.
■ 2 cartons of soft drink with straws. These should
be put by the feet of the ‘petals’ and are where the
visiting pollinator might like to come and sip
‘nectar’.
■ pollinator ‘costume’ – this could be as simple as
some wire for antennae, a stripy sweater and some
cardboard wings for a bee.
Some of the equipment listed is desirable rather than
essential; however, the more visual the game can be
made the more the children become involved and
interested (see page 39 and Figure 1). It can be part of
the exercise to ask children what plant parts they think
may be necessary for the process and involve the class
in designing and making the items needed.
Procedure
The children enact the process of pollination by playing
the role of various flower parts, or by being the
pollinating insect. One child takes the part of the
pollinator and moves between two ‘flowers’, removing
pollen from the stamens of one and placing it on the
stigma of the other. It may then transfer pollen of the
second plant back to the stigma of the first plant, etc.
Encourage the children to discuss what they have just
acted out; the process can be developed further by
discussing the stages of fertilisation, seed growth and
dispersal.
Several extensions to this game have emerged over
time. Educators have developed separate male and
female flowers; some have actually made huge complete cloth/card flowers that children can put together
and take apart to expose pollen or growing seeds, etc.
I am certain that there will be many more variations
demonstrated in the next few years.
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Environmental games
Figure 1 Playing the pollination game.
Who am I?
This very simple game builds vocabulary and helps to
develop an understanding of plant parts; it may also
help to develop identification skills. The game is based
on one called ‘20 questions’. Children form small
groups, perhaps of 4 or 5, and one child mentally selects
a plant/flower/fruit, etc. he or she wishes to be. The
other children can then ask 20 questions to see if they
can guess the chosen plant. The child being questioned
can only answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’, so those asking the
questions must remember to phrase them suitably. For
example, one might ask ‘Are you a fruit?’ but not ‘Are
you a fruit or a vegetable?’ The first can be answered
with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’; whereas the second cannot. If
the group has not guessed the plant after 20 questions
have been asked the person can give them the answer.
Each person in the group should be allowed a turn at
selecting a plant for the others to guess.
This game has considerable benefits beyond those
stated above; it requires absolutely no equipment and
it can keep a class relatively quiet for a long time –
certainly long enough for you to catch your breath
ready for a more boisterous game!
Time-line game
Unlike the last example, this is a little more difficult
for children and should be attempted only if the teacher
feels confident of the children’s ability to take on board
some of the concepts. The game attempts to tackle a
very difficult concept, that of the relative time slots
for the appearance of various life forms and events of
note on Earth since its creation.
Equipment needed
■ 50 or 100 metre tape measure
■ 11 or more clothes pegs or marker sticks/poles
■ A set of stiff rectangular cards (≈ 8 cm by 10 cm),
representing the following evolutionary events as
illustrations and words or just words:
first simple life forms
first land plants
first bony fish
first winged insects
first dinosaurs
first modern mammal
first man
first car
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Procedure
For the game, the scale of 1 cm = 1 million years should
be used.
The long tape is unrolled until the correct distance
for the ‘start of the Earth’ is reached (4600 million
years ago – or whichever date is currently accepted
by the scientific fraternity) and this point is marked
with a peg on the tape (or pole on the ground). Starting
from the beginning of the tape, which represents the
present moment, mark off the following measurements
on the tape measure by peg or pole:
0.001 mm
2 cm
65 cm
1 m 70 cm
2 m 50 cm
3 m 50 cm
4m
4 m 40 cm
20 m
first car
(100 years ago)
first appearance of early man
(2 million years ago)
first modern mammal
(65 million years ago)
first bird
(170 million years ago)
first dinosaurs
(250 million years ago)
first winged insects
(350 million years ago)
first bony fish
(400 million years ago)
first land plants
(440 million years ago)
first simple life forms
(2000 million years ago)
Hand out the cards to the players; depending on
whether it is appropriate, the correct date for each event
can be given out too. The children should be advised
of the measurement system and asked to place their
card by the correct ‘time’ as measured off by the
markers on the tape.
The children will invariably require a lot of help
for this activity (more often than not, adults need help
too). What is interesting is for children to see afterwards how ‘late’ life forms appeared on Earth and how
relatively compressed in time some evolutionary
events are. This makes for quite lively discussion.
Again the activity can be extended up or down
depending on the needs or the ability levels – perhaps
for younger children, events within the last few
thousand years could be discussed.
Figure 3 Playing the time-line game.
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The pollution game
There are several exciting games that help to explain
complex environmental issues to children. Some, like
this game, involve role play. The pollution game helps
children to understand some of the consequences of
polluting our environment.
Equipment needed
■ Several containers – these can be anything, e.g.
carrier bags, paper bags or envelopes. You will need
as many containers as there are children in the
lowest link of your food chain, i.e. if 20 children
are ‘plants’ you will need 20 containers.
■ Small squares of paper (about 1 cm square). You
will need several hundred, about 75% in one colour
(e.g. white) and 25% in another (e.g. red). (Note:
you don’t have to cut up the paper carefully; small
rough-cut pieces will do!)
Procedure
For this game divide up the children into different
groups, each group representing an element of a food
chain. You should have at least three elements, ‘plants’,
‘herbivores’ and ‘carnivores’, for the game to be
effective. Divide the children to correspond roughly
with the ‘pyramid’ of numbers, that is lots of plants
(e.g. 20), fewer herbivores (e.g. 8), and very few
carnivores (e.g. 1 or 2). The game requires a lot of
space and is best played outdoors, but remember to
set ‘boundaries’ beyond which the children cannot run,
otherwise you will never finish this game!
The ‘plants’ position themselves somewhere inside
the defined area. You then throw all the pieces of
coloured paper (mixed) into the air so that they scatter
across the space. On your signal, the ‘plants’ each pick
up as many pieces of paper as they can get hold of and
put them in their containers. The paper collected in
the containers represents the food the plant has
accumulated. The plants should be given a set amount
of time (e.g. 1 minute) to collect their ‘food’ (the more
pieces of paper you have, the longer this will take of
course). You can either let the children move, or you
can make them lie on one spot and stretch out for the
food as if their arms were ‘roots’.
Once the ‘plants’ have accumulated their food, give
a signal to allow the ‘herbivores’ to ‘catch’ and eat the
plants. (It is easier to allow a little licence here as, of
course, normally one would not expect plants to run
away from herbivores. However, as long as this is
explained to the children, it is good to let the ‘plants’
Environmental games
have a run about and enjoy the game.) Every time a
herbivore ‘eats’ a plant, the plant has to give up its
food store (container full of paper) to the herbivore.
This should mean that most ‘herbivores’ will end up
with two or more containers representing the ‘food’
they have eaten. Again a set time for this section should
be given, perhaps 3 or 4 minutes, depending on how
fast the children run. Plants ‘eaten’ leave the designated
space; plants not eaten at the end of this period can sit
on the ground.
On your next signal, the carnivore(s) are let loose
to catch the herbivores. This climax part is usually the
noisiest of all. Every herbivore caught must hand over
its food-store to the carnivore and leave the playing
area. After a set time, perhaps 3 or 4 minutes, call a
halt. The carnivore(s) will usually have ‘eaten’ several
herbivores and will have accumulated their ‘food’; he
or she should therefore have several containers and a
large quantity of the coloured pieces of paper. The
children gather round to look at what the carnivore
has eaten. Explain that the 75% of paper that is white
(or the chosen colour) is normal healthy ‘food’, and
the 25% of paper that is red (or other chosen colour)
represents polluted ‘food’, that is, chemicals in the soil
that have been accumulated in the plants and therefore
are also taken in by the rest of the animals in the food
chain.
Using this game it is easy to show children how
pollution can affect a wide range of living things, some
perhaps originating quite far from the initial location
of the pollution. Children can see how the pollution is
passed up through the food chain and can appear at
every stage. Depending on the abilities of the children,
the food chain can be made more complex and could
incorporate several carnivore levels, the ‘young’ of the
top carnivore (e.g. eggs of an eagle) or perhaps
‘decomposers’. Other information can be built in by
varying the ‘habitat’ for the game and having different
food chains. For the very young children you can, of
course, do the game without the ‘pollution’ context,
and merely use it to explain the food chains and
pyramids of numbers.
Island biodiversity game
This and the next two games described are particularly
good games that introduce issues about biodiversity
management. They were developed by Adam Adamou,
formerly of the International Centre for Conservation
Education, and can be adapted to suit a wide range of
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abilities. They are probably best suited to 9–14 yearolds though I have seen many adult groups having great
fun with the Island biodiversity game; nevertheless it
packs quite a ‘conservation’ punch for those participating. The game carries an important message and
is even useful to play with higher and further education
students participating in conservation management
training. It cleverly and clearly demonstrates the
problems associated with breaking up large biodiverse
habitats and creating smaller island reserves of
biodiversity. These problems are common where
pressure on land is great, and often settlements, farming
or roads are developed which cut through such speciesrich areas causing far more damage than may at first
be apparent.
Equipment needed
■ Source of music, e.g. a cassette player or radio.
■ Several chairs/mats/pieces of cardboard. You will
need as many as there are children playing the
game.
■ Stickers or labels (on string to hang round the necks
of the children) for each child playing. Each one
should have the name (or a symbol) for an animal,
insect, or plant written on it. Make sure that you
have ‘breeding pairs’ of labels when noting down
the animals, e.g. a label for a male monkey and
one for a female monkey, a male parrot label and a
female one; you can even choose some monoecious
plants and have a label for a female flowering tree
and one for the male flowering tree. Include a
variety of ‘pollinating’ types of creatures, such as
bees, birds, beetles, bats.
Procedure
Each child is given a named label. The chairs (or mats/
large pieces of card if you prefer to use them) are put
out in a long line with alternate chairs facing in the
opposite direction from one another (the normal
arrangement for the well-known game of ‘Musical
Chairs’). Each child sits on a chair.
Explain to the children that the chairs represent a
rich habitat and that they are some of the creatures
and plants living there. It is important that you decide
on a particular habitat, such as an area of rainforest or
grasslands, and that the animals and plants represent
the sort of species you would find there. When you
start the music, children circle around the line of chairs.
While they are circling, remove about four or five
chairs from the middle of the line; this represents a
road that has been built through the habitat, dividing
it into two ‘islands’.
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When you turn off the music, each child quickly
finds the nearest chair and sits on it. Of course, there
are now more children than chairs – those that have
not been able to find a chair represent animals or plants
that are now no longer in that habitat. Read out the
labels of each plant or animal that is ‘lost’, asking the
children each time whether one ‘sex’ of a species is
now living on its own in the habitat. Point out that if
the female monkey has gone, for example, the male
monkey will have no partner and so be unable to breed;
effectively both monkeys are ‘lost’. You therefore call
out the ‘other partners’ from their seats. Similarly, if a
female of a species is on an ‘island’ on one side of the
road and the male on the other side, it is probably
impossible for them to breed; both are taken away and
represent a ‘lost’ species. If a pollinator has been ‘lost’
from the habitat, tell the children that it pollinated a
particular plant species in the habitat. Without a
pollinator (or perhaps a seed-dispersal agent) this plant
species cannot survive and must be ‘lost’ too.
This is a good moment to ask the children to review
how many species have really been lost from the
habitat. Although the ‘road’ only cut through a small
area of the ‘habitat’ and there still appears to be a good
deal of ‘habitat’ left, albeit in two islands, in reality
there has been a much greater loss of biodiversity than
they might have thought possible.
The game can be continued, by taking away chairs
from either side of the ‘road’ to represent erosion of
the remaining ‘island’ habitats through pollution, new
construction, take-over for farm and/or settlement use,
and so on. Again the high level of biodiversity loss
can be discussed after each ‘time-out’.
Biodiversity card game
This game is a little less mobile but convincingly
demonstrates how loss of species may have a major
impact on the world. It has been fully written up in
Roots 9 (BGCI, 1994) from which the following is
adapted.
Equipment needed
■ 50 pieces of rectangular card (≈ 10 cm by 8 cm),
both sides of which can be written or drawn on.
■ Pens for writing/drawing on cards.
Procedure
A different leaf needs to be drawn on one side of each
piece of card. It is not important that the leaves
represent known species, just as long as no two leaf
shapes/sizes are exactly the same. This may take some
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time to do so you will need to prepare the cards well
before the game; alternatively, if the children can draw
reasonably well, get them each to draw one or two
cards. On the blank side of twenty of the cards write a
‘use’ for that plant, e.g. edible root, sweet fleshy fruit,
plant with chemical for potential diabetes cure, diseaseresistant strain of a crop, contraceptive, plant with fibre
for textile trade.
Select two teams of four children and one team of
two or three. One team of four represents farmers; the
other members of a logging company. The smaller team
represents the conservationists. The rest of the class
can gather round to watch the activity. The participating
children sit on the ground in their respective groups
and the cards are spread out in front of them, ‘leaf’
side up. Explain that the cards represent the different
species in a forest habitat. Each child takes a card; this
represents the number of species either lost under
farmland or to logging and those saved by conservation
measures within a particular time-frame (say 10 years).
The children examine the backs of their individual
cards and report on whether any plants were considered
to have been useful or potentially useful. It is good if
the children express either delight or sadness by booing
and cheering according to whether a useful plant is
‘lost’ or ‘saved’. The selected ‘lost’ cards are stored in
‘a museum’ pile, separated into those with writing on
and those without. The conservationists’ cards are
saved in a ‘nature reserve’ pile. This exercise is
repeated three more times.
It is useful to get the children to discuss whether
the cards without writing on are important and to
explain that often we are unaware of how useful a plant
may eventually be found to be; particularly as, in
reality, we have not researched many plants – only
about 3% have been fully investigated. Encourage the
children to suggest how the different groups may work
together better in the future to manage the ten
remaining species.
Values auction game
This requires more equipment but is certainly a
worthwhile exercise to try out with children.
Equipment needed
■ Items for auctioning: these should include such
things as:
toy car (representing a real car)
computer (or disc to represent a computer)
TV/video (or tape to represent the items)
inflated balloon (representing fresh air)
Environmental games
bottle of medicine (representing medicines in
general)
piece of fruit or vegetable (to represent food)
bottle of water (to represent a clean water supply)
item of clothing (representing a wardrobe of
fashionable clothes)
piece of sports equipment
luxury item such as an imaginary ‘expensive’ piece
of art
picture/poster of a beautiful habitat such as a
coastline or forest (to represent species-rich land).
■ Toy money, e.g. Monopoly money (enough to give
each auction participant £3000 in small
denominations such as £100s and for the bank to
hold reserves).
■ Recording system, e.g. blackboard or large sheet
of paper plus chalk, pens, etc.
Procedure
Before the game begins, the items are displayed as for
an auction. One person is selected as a banker and
either the teacher or, if appropriate, one of the pupils
chosen as the auctioneer. Explain to the children that
all the items are for auction and that they can either
bid individually for items or, if they wish, they can
form cooperatives and buy items as ‘a group’. They
can also borrow money from the bank at a selected
interest rate. (You may also have to explain the actual
process of an auction and/or how to borrow money
from a bank, depending on the knowledge of the
participants.)
The auction is carried out and the price of each
item, as it is finally sold, noted down on a blackboard
or a large sheet of paper. When the auction has finished,
or when the children have bought all that they want to
(they may not always want to buy everything), they
sit down with their possessions. The children’s buying
patterns usually reflect common ‘consumer’ interests;
often a lot of money has been spent on the car, computer, or audio-visual equipment, although there are
variations, and relatively little on the air, water, food
and medicines.
Ask the children to discuss and give reasons as to
why they have spent more money on some items and
less on others. Some might like to reflect on the
problems they are going to have, if they now find
themselves in debt to the bank. Two lists should be
drawn up by the children: one of the items in the
auction that are vital to our well-being and survival
and the other of those items that are not vital. The lists
should include the prices paid for each item. Encourage
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children to think about whether they have made the
right choices and paid the right price for items, or
whether they might choose differently at another
similar auction. It is important not to be too censorious
in the discussion or to prompt the children to say the
right things; children need to understand the values
for themselves and appreciate the important messages
that the game tries to put across.
Build-a-tower game
This is a real ‘ice-breaker’ and an effective way of
showing the importance of good communication. It is
another from Mr Adamou’s repertoire and instantly
engages your audience.
Two people are invited to come to the front of the
class. Each is given an identical pile of Lego bricks,
with about 40 different shapes, sizes and colours. The
two participants sit with their backs to each other and
are not allowed to communicate. One is invited to build
a tower (or another structure) using the Lego. Once
they have finished, the other participant is invited to
build the same tower. This is of course impossible as
the second person cannot see the structure and has had
no contact with the first builder. Once the, usually
frustrated, second person has declared that they cannot
be expected to build a similar structure, the first person
is invited to shout instructions to the second person so
that they can build a repeat structure. This is, in fact,
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an extraordinarily difficult exercise to accomplish
perfectly: the person shouting instructions invariably
forgets to give some information about the size, colour
or particular fixing of pieces. This part of the activity
usually invokes gales of laughter from the audience
who are watching the assembly of the second
‘mismatched’ structure. The participants are invited
to compare structures afterwards to prove the point! If
you run the exercise again, this time inviting the second
participant to watch, discuss the building process and
to build their own structure simultaneously with the
first person, the result should be perfect. The abilities
to see, hear, discuss and imitate are all ways of
communicating information. Try this game out on your
work colleagues before a meeting some time – it might
help improve institutional communications!
Summary
All of these games and activities go down very well
with both children and older students; several are often
useful for educators themselves to play! There is certainly everything to gain by developing a questioning
mind in children and often they are more inspired to
discuss environmental issues if they understand them
more clearly. Games offer an effective form of
communication; good communication leads to better
understanding and hopefully this understanding will
encourage attitude changes.
Acknowledgements
My appreciation goes to the producers of some of the games detailed here. Thank you for letting us share your
ideas:
Adam Adamou and the International Centre for Conservation Education, England
Project Wildlife team, USA
Science and Plants for Schools (SAPS), Cambridge, England
Environmental Education Series 21 (produced by ICCE for UNESCO–UNEP, IEEP)
A version of this article first appeared in Spanish in Plumeria: Boletin de los Jardines Botanicos de
Latinoamericanoy del Caribe, 5 (1997).
Reference
BGCI (1994) Roots: Botanic Gardens Education for Conservation, 9. July. Botanic Gardens Conservation International.
Gail Bromley is Head of Education at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey.
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